CJA Urges Department of Justice to Open Criminal Investigation of U.S. Torture

Final Trial Against Khmer Rouge Leaders Resumes, But Faces More Delays

CJA Files Case Against Víctor Jara's Killer

CJA Delegates Return from El Salvador

CJA organized a delegation to El Salvador to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Jesuits Massacre and to salute and support our in-country partners, who have been so crucial to CJA's work in El Salvador for the last 10 years. Read more...

Spain Seeks Extradition of Jesuits Massacre Perpetrator Imprisoned in U.S.

02/27/2015: CJA is pleased to announce that we are searching to fill a new staff position for Staff or Senior Staff Attorney to litigate and investigate impact cases on behalf of survivors of torture and other severe human rights abuses. Click here to read more.

02/20/2015: CJA welcomes news that Sri Lanka has adopted a witness protection law. The announcement comes days after the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights agreed to temporarily delay until September a U.N. report on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka during and immediately following its 26-year civil war. Click here to read more.

02/18/2015: CJA filed a brief yesterday in our historic case Jara v. Barrientos, accepting the defendant’s motion to set aside a default judgment and agreeing not to oppose the removal of the default judgment against former Pinochet Lieutenant Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nuñez, accused of torturing and killing Chilean folksinger and activist Víctor Jara. The family of Mr. Jara welcomed Barrientos’s motion, which, if granted, would allow the case to proceed to a full trial and bring to light the events that transpired surrounding their loved one’s death. Click here to read more.

02/06/2015: CJA urges federal district court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee to hear claims by four Iraqi citizens about torture inflicted on them by U.S. military contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc. Click here to read more in our press release and click here to read more about CJA's involvement in this case.

02/02/2015: CJA sent a letter to U.S. Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal, encouraging U.S. engagement on Sri Lanka’s human rights record to coincide with Biswal's visit to Sri Lanka. CJA urged Biswal to acknowledge the positive actions taken by the Sirisena government to build reconciliation with the Tamil community and pressed for additional steps. Click here to read more.

01/20/2015: CJA welcomes the news that yesterday, after a trial that lasted a few months, a Guatemalan court found ex-police chief Pedro Garcia Arredondo guilty of murder, attempted murder and crimes against humanity for the 1980 massacre of 37 people at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala during Guatemala’s civil war. Click here to read more.

01/13/2015: On January 8, 2015, Maithripala Sirisena defeated incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena, who served as Health Minister and acting Minister of Defense under Rajapaksa, ran on a platform of good governance and the rule of law. The road to reconciliation and accountability, though, remains challenging. Click here to read more.

01/08/2015: The second trial against the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge was delayed again after one of the accused, Khieu Samphan, was hospitalized. The court’s adjournment of the proceedings follows a long list of delays in the trial before the ECCC, including a defense boycott resulting in an adjournment of the proceedings back in November 2014. The court is scheduled to continue January 15. Click here to learn more about the trial.

01/06/2015: CJA welcomes Senator Feinstein's proposed legislation to deter torture by the United States outlined in a letter sent to President Obama. CJA's Executive Director Dixon Osburn said, "The United States strives to ensure that dictators and terrorists around the globe do not commit crimes against humanity, including torture; the United States should live up to those standards at home." Click here to read more.

01/05/2015: The genocide trial against former Guatemalan military dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt resumed briefly on January 5, 2015. The court suspended the trial after one of the judges recused herself. CJA stands with the Mayan-Ixil community and calls on the court to resume the trial expeditiously. Click here to read more.

12/10/2014: CJA Staff Attorney Nushin Sarkarati took part in a panel discussion on victim participation in criminal proceedings at a side event for the Assembly of State Parties at the UN headquarters in New York. Drawing on CJA's long history of representing victims directly in universal jurisdiction claims, Sarkarati explained how victim participation and testimony is essential to understanding the full breadth of human rights abuse and how participation in justice mechanisms is an integral part of the healing process for victim communities.

12/09/2014: CJA praises Senator Dianne Feinstein's leadership on the Senate Intelligence Committee for publishing a powerful executive summary of its findings based on a 6,000-page report on CIA interrogation and detention practices after 9/11. Click here to read more.

11/11/2014: CJA was featured in a Retro Report interview about our efforts to hold Salvadaron generals living in the U.S. accountable for the human rights abuses committed during El Salvador's brutal civil war. CJA Senior Legal Advisor Carolyn Patty Blum explains the history behind our efforts. Click here to learn more about our work against these generals.

10/21/2014: After The New York Times released a report indicating that lawyers in President Obama's administration were considering taking a position that the Convention Against Torture applies only to acts of torture committed within the United States, CJA sent U.S. officials a letter strongly urging them to maintain that torture is illegal everywhere. Click here to read the letter.

10/06/2014: Human rights leader Dixon Osburn has been named the new Executive Director of CJA. We are excited to welcome Dixon, an experienced, visionary leader with a lifelong passion for, and commitment to, human rights. Dixon has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, leader, manager, political strategist, and fundraiser. Click here to read more.

10/06/2014: Notorious Haiti dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier died on October 4, 2014. His death cuts short a long overdue trial for crimes against humanity that held a glimmer of hope for his victims. Under Duvalier’s command, an estimated 300 to 4,000 political prisoners were held incommunicado in a network of prisons. Many died from torture, starvation, denial of medical care, or summary execution. With Duvalier’s death, his prosecution in Haiti will no doubt be closed, but Haiti’s reckoning with its troubled past must not end. Click here to read more.

10/03/2014: In a major reversal of recent legislation that curtailed Spanish jurisdiction over international crimes, the Spanish National Court has decided unanimously that Spain has jurisdiction to investigate the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper, and her 16-year old daughter at the Central American University (UCA) as a crime against humanity. This decision is based on an appeal filed by CJA and APDHE on behalf of the families of the victims of the Jesuits Massacre. Click here to read more.

10/02/2014: The U.S. government released the expert report of Stanford professor Terry Karl, which was used in the removal proceedings against former Salvadoran Minster of Defense Garcia. Professor Karl's report was a basis for the immigration judge's ruling that Garcia should be removed from the U.S. because of his involvement in numerous human rights violations during El Salvador's civil war. This document was released pursuant to a NY Times FOIA request.

About CJA

CJA is an international human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress. CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law and advance the rule of law in countries transitioning from periods of abuse.
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Our Cases

CJA is now the leading NGO which brings cases against individual human rights abusers in the U.S. and Spain under principles of universal jurisdiction.